paths to 32 nm and beyond that had EUV as one, but not the most likely, solution. The most likely solution was a
high NA 193 nm interferometry lithography double exposure solution combined with device structures designed
for manufacturing. The double exposure solution is used to independently pattern then X and Y axis features right
at the resolution limit.
Four years ago, the double exposure solution was viewed as uneconomic for high volume manufacturing. This
year, it is probably cheaper than the alternatives and the giant companies will find a way to make it work.
Imprint Process X ray scatterometry was used to characterize profiles and measure residuals layers
nondestructively. A group from NIST showed how thermal stress relaxation of high molecular polymers gates
cycle time (Soles 2006).
Molds Resnick (2006) showed ebeam inspection on uncoated quartz templates down to 20 nm defect at a
throughput that is manageable for inspection in a mask shop.
UV Step & Repeat - Shumacker (2006) showed align data 30 nm 3 sigma and 15 nm after removal of first order
distortions.
UV Whole Wafer –LeBrake (2006) showed conformality data for a thin template adapting to specific defect and
non flatness scenarios.
Materials – Liquidia (Rolland2006) described some new transfer materials based on flouroethers functionalized
with acrylates manufactured by Solvay. KRI (Katayama 2006) reported on inorganic UV imprint materials.
Functional dielectrics for dual damascene were described by the U Texas team (Lin 2006). Ito (2006) from IBM
reported a low viscosity ink jet dispensable vinyl ether formulation based on multiple mono and difunctional
species.
Release - Improved release layers using vapor phase deposited flouro alky silanes were described by Zhang
(2006) from Applied Microstructures.
Houle (2006) from IBM described a systematic study of the adhesion forces between different imprint materials
and surface treatments. The data showed evidence of interactions such that flourosilane treatments and
crosslinking imprint materials actually had higher adhesion forces. These results help to explain the
contradictory and complex prior reports about release.
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For more source information on each item go to References, or to the abstract book for the conference.
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